I hate it when you get thrown a curve...

[BAC5.2]

So last night I was gonna go into DC to visit my ladygirlfriend and I pulled out of my driveway and I hear a wicked CLUNK.

I think not TO much of it, knowing my brakes are horrible and that I'd be ordering new stuff next week.

I get to the top of my neighborhood and press the brake. Pedal sinks to the floor. I find it odd, pump the brake, and it feels OK after that. I drive about 10 more feet, pedal to the floor, car BARELY wants to stop, so I pull over and look. No fluid on the ground, but none in my resivoir. So I flip a bitch and drive back to my house very carefully (a whopping 100 yards).

I get into the garage and check out what happened. Apparently the "clunk" was my drivers side, outside, rear pad falling out of the car. Yep. No pad.

So my car is inoperable, and what sucks, is that it was 2am and I had to be at work at 9. I woke up and called into work at 8am to tell them that I wouldn't be making it.

To complicate matters, and make me feel worse, my manager says that if I don't show up for a scheduled shift, that I will be written up. He said that I had better show up, at least for a little bit of my shift, or else.

I told him no, I wouldn't be in today, or tomorrow, as I am the only one home and I have no car to get me to work, let alone school!

I told him, I won't be going anywhere until my brakes are here and I can install them. I told him that school was FAR more important than work, so the faster that I could get everything taken care of, the better.

I just ordered new brakes (though due to moneys constraints, I definately cut corners that I would have MUCH rather not have cut). I got some gangster Hawk HPS pads and some Satisfied Gransport 6 pads from tire rack and azpinstalls, and I got some Racing brake front rotors (from azp again), and some brandi rear rotors from all-foreign.com. All 2 day air mailed to my house.

If I had more money to throw, I'd have upgraded and gotten better rear rotors and better pads, but I am in a bind so to speak.

All of this would have been somewhat moot if only I had my motorcycle to get me around while the car is down. I am pretty bummed about that, but hopefully I can get the bike sometime this week.

I am a RCH away from walking out of my job because of my manager (who is one of my friends). He is a horrible manager, scolding rather than helping. And he's a friend too, which means that I can't tell him off. I think I am going to request a location change, or at least not to be working with him any longer, or I will be walking out on a 4 year relationship with the company. Write me up, and he will be writing up my resignation as well. It was totally uncalled for, for him to act like that. A situation WELL beyond my control, and him telling me to take a cab to work.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. I need to get my shit together so I can get my car back on the road, without hearing bullshit from him about it. I'm gonna call again tonight and talk to my store manager. The only way I can get my ass to work tomorrow, is if he picks me up at 9:30, and is willing to drop me back off at my house at 6:30. Otherwise, he's SOL because I am up a smelly creek without a paddle.

*sigh* This sucks, but at least it only happened when I was going 5mph. I just wish that it could have waited until pay day so I could have done things the way that I would have liked to. Sometimes life throws you lemons.

[/rant]

[Subaru_Nation555]

Glad to hear your okay, I suppose a brake failure like that could have been alot worse. I hate when I'm forced to cut corners and order parts I need but don't really want at an inconvenient time. Hope your new brake set-up works out okay for the time being. Best of luck.

[skid542]

Damn Phil, that sucks. At least it was only going 5mph like you said. Brake failure like that can definately be worse. I had it happen to me twice with my old car, first time it folded the pad in half and locked the front wheel. The second time was coming to a stop for an intersection, God bless the man that put the first cable actuated e-brake in cars.

Sorry to hear about you job too, that situation sucks but it'll work out. Friends and jobs often don't go together too well unfortunately . But at least soon you'll have all brand spanking new brakes to enjoy.

[evolutionmovement]

I was a short time away from this on my front brakes before I did the WRX conversion last fall. The EBCs fell out as I loosened the caliper. I should consider my luck, but I just move on from near misses with a shrug, like when the engine hatch crunched my head. It's not the danger, it's the inconvenience that gets to me.

Steve

[professor]

how does a pad fall out ? never heard of that one

you must have blown the piston out of the caliper after that, there should have been a big fluid mess on that wheel

still at least two of your brakes should have worked, out of four, even if you did blow out the piston. Same as blowing a line. The soft pedal can definitely cause a problem for a moment

I did brakes for a friend once in my driveway in PA, very steep, and I told him to pump up before leaving, he didn't, and almost crashed into my neighbor's car across the street. Dude's face was white as a sheet

[tris91ricer]

I hear you on the friends and jobs, deal, phil. A buddy of mine is also my boss, and boy.. he can be a prick sometimes. It's hard to juggle, so I understand.
Sucks about the brakes.. but at least you've got new shit on the way! Lotsa times, people don't plan for things to go out, and get stuck worse than you!
We're all pulling for ya...

[BAC5.2]

Professor - The pad was down to bare metal to the max. It was so thin, that under the light braking I did coming out of the driveway, the pad hooked on the groove rotor and was pulled between the bracket and the rotor to fall out. The piston side pad was still in place.

I could still stop, but not very effectively.

[rallysam]

That's rediculous! I didn't know that could happen.


BTW - Where do you go to school?

[BAC5.2]

Montgomery College.

It sucks, because I was going to order new stuff this week after pay day and get some good rear rotors and some more aggressive track pads and have the rotors mailed to be cryo treated. But that fell through

Oh well, I'll get 20k out of these, I hope.

[legacy92ej22t]

Wow Phil. Good thing it happened pulling out of your street and not at say...that crazy corner coming into Rockville that is so fun. You know, the one that Roman lost it on.

Sorry to hear about the work thing. I know exactly how you feel. I had my department manager say that he was going to write anyone caught on the internet up because people were abusing it. I'm not one that abuses it but I do check LC out if it's slow and I've finished my tasks. I told him flat out that the day he wrote me up was the last day I'd work. Lets just say I've never been writin up.

Working for a friend can suck. Working for family is worse. Working for inlaws is the absolute worst. Trust me. I worked for my wifes family for 7.5 years. It was hell, straight up. Good job security but I couldn't speak my mind the way I like to.

[BAC5.2]

Hehehe, I know! What's bad, is that Debbie and I drove home from Rockville, in the rain, that same night. Going 60mph, in the rain, with a brake pad wanting to fall out. Scary to the max. It fell out when we were going to go back to her school in DC.

The manager that yelled at me is leaving, as is the current head mechanic, so I might actually get a promotion out of this whole bullshit. If I get written up, I leave. As Vikash reminded me, they need me a LOT more than I need them. 4 years of loyalty don't mean shit when you get disrespected and furthermore get written up for something beyond your control. I plan on walking in tomorrow afternoon to speak with the managers, my decrepid brake pad in hand.